


Moments of Hope

by BonfireRose



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:21:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25635730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BonfireRose/pseuds/BonfireRose
Summary: What if things went a little differently? Forty-eight students now live together, but how long will those lives last? And why are they all there in the first place?Inspired by A New Hope, this is a Danganronpa AU featuring the cast of all three main games. However, the protagonist(s), mastermind(s), victims, and blackeneds were determined by pulling names out of a hat. Literally. And a few other story elements were decided by rolling dice.This should be interesting.This is my first fic on this site as well as my first Danganronpa fic, so constructive criticism is appreciated!
Comments: 13
Kudos: 41





	1. Initiation

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A New Hope](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/659521) by Crit Fail. 



The first thing Kazuichi Soda noticed was how uncomfortable he was.

The second thing he noticed was that he seemed to be in some sort of arcade. Lying on the floor of an arcade, to be precise.

The third thing he noticed was that he had company. It appeared to be three girls, all asleep. One had long blonde hair, wore a pink uniform and goggles on her head, and was sprawled across the platform of a dancing game. Another had short pink hair, wore a blue hoodie over her shirt and skirt, and was slumped over on a stool in front of an arcade machine. The last had short brownish hair, wore a green jacket and a brown skirt, and was curled up in front of what appeared to be a token redemption desk.

After a quick scan of his surroundings, Kazuichi scrambled to his feet. Questions began racing through his head. Why was he asleep on the floor of an arcade? Who were these girls? Where was he?

He rubbed his head, trying to remember what had happened. The last thing he remembered was walking toward Hope’s Peak Academy on his first day of school there, and then everything going dark.

What had happened?

While he pondered his situation, the others in the room woke up as well. The blonde in pink spoke first.

“Ugh, where the fuck am I?” She sat up, rubbing her eyes. She noticed Kazuichi and immediately scowled at him. “And who the fuck are you?”

“Uh, hi. The name’s Kazuichi Soda. I’m the Ultimate Mechanic. And you are?”

The girl stood up. “You haven’t heard of me before? This gorgeous girl genius who’ll be known in history as the legendary Ultimate Inventor?”

Kazuichi was a bit startled by her brash behavior. “Uh... sorry, haven’t heard of you yet. But I’d like to know who you are?”

The girl laughed loudly. “Can’t wait to get to know a hottie like me, huh? Well, you’re in luck, because the one and only Miu Iruma is kind enough to introduce herself.” Miu tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, addressing the small girl currently rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “And who’s this flat little runt?”

The other girl jumped slightly. “Oh, uh… I’m Chihiro Fujisaki. I’m the Ultimate Programmer,” she mumbled. She quickly looked down at the floor, seeming to be embarrassed.

The last girl piped up. “Nice to meet you, Kazuichi, Miu, Chihiro.” She smiled. “I’m Chiaki Nanami, the Ultimate Gamer.”

Kazuichi looked around at the three of them. then the arcade. “It’s weird that we’re all in this place, huh? I mean, it kinda relates to all of our talents, in a way. Especially Chiaki.”

“Hell yeah!” Miu said loudly, causing Chihiro to startle a bit. “Not like my golden brain needs help from anyone else, but maybe you lot would appreciate my inventions more than the average schmuck.”

“I’d like to hear more about them,” Chiaki said, “but first I want to figure out how we got here.”

“Good question,” Kazuichi said. “The last thing I remember is walking into Hope’s Peak Academy for my first day of school there and then everything going dark.”

“Hey, that’s also what I remember!” Miu said.

“That seems to be the case for me, too,” Chiaki said.

“Me too,” Chihiro said. “This is really weird. I’m a bit worried…”

“Hey, no need to be worried, right?” Kazuichi said with a grin. He was a bit worried, in truth, but he wasn’t about to admit that just yet. “This place seems pretty cool!”

“Should we see if there’s anyone else around?” Chiaki asked.

“Probably,” Kazuichi said. “ If I’m remembering correctly, the welcoming ceremony was going to be held in the gymnasium. If we are in Hope’s Peak, we should start there. And if we’re somewhere else, well… we’ll figure it out!”

“Sounds like a plan to me!” Miu said. “This genius can’t just wait around and let her precious mind go to waste, can she?” And with that, she bounded out of the arcade.

“Hey, wait up for us!” Kazuichi called after her. He ran out after her, followed by Chihiro and Chiaki. Outside of the arcade, he found himself in a hallway. It looked like a hallway one would find in a school. “I guess this weird place is Hope’s Peak after all,” he thought aloud as he ran. He noticed a few other rooms as he followed Miu. Some of the doors were open, others shut. From the quick glances he got into the open classrooms, what should have been windows appeared to be large metal plates screwed to the walls. Definitely not what one would expect from a school.

Presently, the four all arrived at a large gymnasium. Several people could be seen already there. Miu promptly charged toward a small cluster of people near them, likely eager to share her self-proclaimed genius with everyone. Looking around, Kazuichi noticed that the windows of the gym had also been covered with metal plates. Thinking about those made him nervous. Why would they need to be covered so strongly?

Kazuichi shook off the thought and turned back to Chiaki and Chihiro. “I guess we should follow Miu’s lead and introduce ourselves to everyone.”

Chihiro looked scared. “I’m not really good at introducing myself to others.”

“Hey, you did just fine earlier,” Chiaki said, smiling at Chihiro. “But I’ll stay with you if you want some help. Care to join us, Kazuichi?”

Kazuichi thought for a moment. “I think I’ll be fine on my own for now. Catch you later?”

“Catch you later,” the two girls said in unison. And with that, they disappeared into the crowd.

Kazuichi counted everyone before starting his introductions. There were a lot of people here… forty-eight, including himself. He sighed and made his way to the closest person to him. This was going to take a while…

*********

“Ugh, my head is swimming with all these names!” the girl sighed.

“Mine too,” Kazuichi groaned in agreement with… oh come on, he had it just a moment ago. Akane. Akane Owari. That was it.

“I’m horrible with names, so just yell at me if I mess yours up, okay?” Akane flashed Kazuichi a large grin.

“Got it.” Kazuichi gave her a thumbs up. Akane skipped off to talk to someone else. He sighed, going over the names of everyone he just met. Akane Owari was the girl he had just talked to. Chiaki Nanami, Miu Iruma, and Chihiro Fujisaki were the girls who had woken up in the arcade with him. Kiyotaka Ishimaru had yelled at him for being late. Nekomaru Nidai, Gonta Gokuhara, and Sakura Ogami were the ones he mentally vowed to be careful around, lest he end up injured. Byakuya Togami, Kyoko Kirigiri, Maki Harukawa, and Mukuro Ikusaba had all greeted him very coldly. Not that Mukuro got much of a chance to speak with Junko Enoshima constantly talking over her. Makoto Naegi, Hajime Hinata, Mahiru Koizumi, Rantaro Amami, Sayaka Maizono, Kaede Akamatsu, Tsumugi Shirogane, and Kirumi Tojo had all been comfortingly normal introductions. Mondo Owada and Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu had been in the middle of a heated argument when he came across them, with Peko Pekoyama desperately trying to break them up and Kokichi Oma cheering both of them on. Toko Fukawa, Mikan Tsumiki, and Shuichi Saihara had all been notably shy. Aoi Asahina, Kaito Momota, Yasuhiro Hagakure, Ibuki Mioda, Leon Kuwata, Gundham Tanaka, and Angie Yonaga had all been notably enthusiastic. Hiyoko Saionji and Tenko Chabashira had both greeted him harshly. Celestia Ludenberg, Himiko Yumeno, Ryoma Hoshi, and Korekiyo Shinguji had all seemed a bit strange, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Teruteru Hanamura and Hifumi Yamada had been in an… interesting conversation with Miu when he first met them. Nagito Komaeda had been quietly watching everyone from a corner for most of the morning. Apparently there was another Byakuya. And then there was K1-B0, or Keebo. Keebo was his favorite so far. He hoped to get a chance to see how exactly Keebo worked later. Actually, Keebo was tied with Sonia Nevermind for his favorite. Sonia was probably the most beautiful girl he’d ever met, and he’d met quite a lot of people, especially today...

Kazuichi sat down on the floor. Forty-seven people were a lot of people to meet in the span of roughly half an hour. His mind felt muddled and overworked. Having to remember everyone’s names and Ultimates on top of the mystery of how everyone got here and the weird bolted windows and empty classrooms… he sighed into his hands. It was a lot to process.

“You’re feeling worn out too?” Kazuichi looked up to find Chiaki. Chihiro hovered a bit behind her.

“Yeah. The day’s barely even started and I already want to go back to bed,” he said. Chiaki and Chihiro sat down next to him.

“So do I,” Chiaki said, punctuating her point with a yawn before continuing. “Maybe I should have spread out all these introductions.”

Chihiro stared at the ground glumly. “Meeting everyone was a bit tiring, but at least it was a nice distraction from the mystery looming over us.”

“Right,” Kazuichi muttered. “I hope we can get some answers soon.”

Just as he said that, the lights went dim. Half the students immediately went silent, while the other half started freaking out. All were silenced by a strange voice booming out from nowhere. “Testing, testing, is this thing on? Well, I’m just going to assume it is. Welcome, students of Hope’s Peak Academy!”

A bright light shone onto an empty spot on the floor. Kazuichi looked up at the ceiling, just now noticing the unusually placed spotlights. Who puts spotlights in a gymnasium? The whole situation was getting weirder by the second, and he did not like it one bit.

He turned his gaze back to where the spotlight pointed as the unknown voice continued to speak. “You may have a few questions about your new school, so your headmaster is here to answer them! And who is your headmaster, you may ask? Well, that just so happens to be me… MONOKUMA!”

As he proclaimed his name, he stepped into the spotlight- wait, a teddy bear? Seriously? What kind of joke was this? And why did the teddy bear look so weird?

Several other students voiced what Kazuichi had been thinking, all promptly shut down by the supposed headmaster. “I am NOT a teddy bear! I’ll have you all know that I am state-of-the-art technology and not something to be treated lightly! Especially not when I have all your lives snugly nested in my powerful little paws! That’s right! Your lives! And I mean it!”

A chill ran down Kazuichi’s spine. “This is creepy…” he thought aloud. He noticed Chiaki and Chihiro nodding in agreement. The bear continued.

“Now that we have that established, please form three neat lines to my right. You’ll notice I’ve brought out your student electronic handbooks, or e-handbooks for short. Each stack of e-handbooks is labeled with the class they’re for. Line up according to your class, and then we can really get started! Puhuhuhu!” The laugh tacked on at the end made Kazuichi uncomfortable, but nevertheless he stood up and started walking to the tables.

“I’m part of class 77,” Chiaki said. “What about you guys?”

“I’m part of 77 too,” Kazuichi said.

“78,” Chihiro said. With that, she split off to join the back of the line for her class. Kazuichi noticed Miu and Keebo in the line for class 79. They were talking about something. He couldn’t tell what, but he noticed Keebo looked uncomfortable. He turned back to his own line to see who his classmates were. Nekomaru, Akane, Gundham- oh, he shared a class with Miss Sonia!- Hajime, Nagito, Mahiru, Mikan, Hiyoko, Teruteru, the heavier Byakuya, Peko, Fuyuhiko, Ibuki, and Chiaki. One by one, they all took their e-handbooks and turned them on.

As Kazuichi got closer and closer to the table, he noticed looks of fear starting to spread. Hastily hushed cries of shock were heard, harshly contrasting the gentle ebb of whispering that grew steadily louder. Kazuichi could feel his heart hammering in his chest. What was everyone seeing that made them so scared?

Finally, it was his turn. With a mix of excitement, curiosity, and dread, he turned on his handbook. Immediately, he found a page with all his personal information, as well as a blinking red button the read “RULES: PLEASE READ.” Kazuichi pressed the button on the screen, which took him to a list of rules. He began to read:

**RULES AND REGULATIONS:**

**1\. Monokuma, as your headmaster, has the final say over all rules. Challenging his decisions or physically attacking him will result in punishment. Breaking any of the following rules will result in punishment.**  
**2\. Night hours are from 10 PM to 7 AM. During these hours, most areas will be closed. Sleeping outside of dorms is not permitted and doing so will result in punishment.**  
**3\. The objective of the game is simple. In order to escape, a student must successfully murder another student and remain undetected. Motives will be provided if necessary.**  
**4\. A student who murders another student becomes blackened. No more than three students may be killed by a single blackened.**  
**5\. When the body or bodies is/are discovered by at least three innocent students, the Body Discovery Announcement will play.**  
**6\. After the Body Discovery Announcement, students will be given one hour to investigate and collect evidence before Class Trial begins.**  
**7\. During the Class Trial, students must determine who the blackened is. At the end, there is a vote.**  
**8\. If the blackened is guessed correctly, the blackened will be punished. Everybody else will move on to the next round.**  
**9\. If the blackened is guessed incorrectly, the blackened is set free. They are allowed to select three other students to leave with them if they so desire. All remaining students are punished.**  
**10\. All punishments are executions.**

**Let’s get to killing everyone! Stabbing, slicing, dicing, poisoning, bludgeoning, you name it! I’d better see some despair-worthy action from all of you!**

Kazuichi felt dizzy. This couldn’t be right. This was all a bad dream, right? He got so worked up about his first day at Hope’s Peak that he gave himself nightmares. That had to be it.

He nearly convinced himself, but the sound of screaming students couldn’t be ignored. This was real. This was all very real. They were being forced to kill or be killed. Kazuichi joined some of the other students in screaming. That didn’t last long, however.

“Calm down, Kazuichi,” Chiaki appeared next to him. She was visibly upset but was staying calm. “There’s a way out of this. There has to be.”

Although still terrified, Kazuichi pulled himself together enough to stop screaming. The others also stopped screaming shortly following several yelled commands from Monokuma to be quiet. One some semblance of order had been restored, Monokuma continued talking.

“Listen up! In your handbooks, you will also find maps of the school, including the location of your dorm rooms. If anyone has any questions about the rules, feel free to ask me! As your headmaster, I’m here to ensure each one of my precious students makes the most out of their time here at Hope’s Peak! Puhuhuhu!” He gave a sickening grin, laughing maniacally and showing his pointed teeth.

Some students seemed unaffected. Some had promptly resumed screaming. Chihiro was crying hysterically into Chiaki’s arms. Kiyotaka was attempting to order students around. Mondo looked like he was about to punch Monokuma.

Nope. Too much. Kazuichi was done with this shit. He started for the exit of the gym. A few other students were also heading for the door.

He ran out into the hallway, pulling out his handbook and finding the map. He located his room and started running. He heard what sounded like an explosion from behind him, but didn’t bother to see what it was. He just kept running until he reached a door with his name on it. He entered his dorm, slamming the door behind him.

Kazuichi sank to the floor, his heart racing. “This is impossible. It’s impossible, right? There’s no way something like this can happen. It’s all impossible. This isn’t real. It’s impossible… it’s impossible… impossible… impossible...”


	2. Organization

It was real.

It was all real.

No matter how hard Kazuichi tried, he couldn’t convince himself that it was all a joke or a bad dream. It was real. And he had to accept that.

But he couldn’t accept it.

He groaned, rolling onto his stomach and burying his face in his pillow. He yanked the blankets over his head, blocking out the outside world completely. Much better. Now he could ignore everything for a few minutes. He could take a nap and- oh dear God what was that loud beeping noise!?

He sat up with a start, his heart racing. He noticed the source of the awfully loud beeping was his student handbook. With an exasperated sigh, he picked the handbook up off of his nightstand and opened it. The button leading to the rules page was flashing. He opened the page and scrolled down to find two new rules that must have been just added:

 **11\. SUICIDES. DO. NOT. COUNT. SUICIDES WILL NOT LEAD TO A CLASS TRIAL. DON’T YOU DARE GET ALL NOBLE AND VIRTUOUS ON ME.**  
**12\. While we’re at it, freak accidents and natural causes don’t count either.**

Kazuichi’s heart rate shot up instantly. This was just preventative, right? Nobody had actually offed themself, right?

His frightening chain of thought was interrupted by a knock on his door. He nearly yelped out loud, startled, but caught himself. _Just be cool,_ he thought to himself. _Just stay chill. Don’t let this stuff frighten you, okay? Okay._ He got up and answered the door, finding the trio that had awoken in the arcade with him.

“Didn’t know you were such a freakin’ pussy,” Miu grumbled. Chiaki glared at Miu and Chihiro sighed.

“Sorry about her,” Chiaki said, turning back to face Kazuichi. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Kazuichi lied. “I got a little creeped out, but I’m over it now. Just… maybe I’m a bit worri- uh, concerned about the new rule put in place.”

“Don’t worry. Nobody died,” Chiaki reassured him. “We had a group considering it, though. Monokuma put the rule in place after overhearing their discussion.”

Kazuichi let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “That’s good to hear. No way we’re getting beaten down by this weirdo plushie!”

“Hell yeah, that’s the spirit!” Miu yelled. Chihiro flinched. Chiaki glared at Miu again.

“It’s okay to be enthusiastic, but can you try to keep your voice down a bit?”

“Ugh. Fine,” Miu grumbled.

“Shouldn’t we tell him…” Chihiro trailed off.

“Oh, yeah,” Chiaki said. “Why we’re here in the first place. We’re trying to get everyone back to the gymnasium to work out a plan.”

“Oh, okay,” Kazuichi said. “Should we head over now?”

“Probably,” Chiaki said, promptly turning and walking down the hall. “Get your handbook and come with us, okay?”

“Gotcha.” He ducked back inside his room to grab his handbook, closing the rules page. He left his room and closed the door behind him. “Did I miss anything else since I left?”

“Not much,” Chiaki said as they started their walk back to the gym. “I mean, yes? No? I don’t know. It all happened so fast.”

“Let’s just walk him through everything,” Chihiro suggested.

“For starters, one of the Monokumas exploded,” Miu said nonchalantly.

“Exploded!?” Kazuichi said, far less nonchalantly.

“Mondo and Fuyuhiko both tried to attack it,” Chihiro said. “And then it started beeping. Thankfully a few other students realized what was happening before anyone could get hurt.”

“They chucked it away from the crowd and then KABLAM!” Miu exclaimed, gesticulating wildly.

“For about 10 seconds, we all thought that was the end of it,” Chiaki said. “But then another Monokuma showed up and informed us that there are several of them, and that the killing game is still very much happening. Nagito immediately offered up his life in case of an emergency, and Peko, Sakura, Kirumi, and Ryoma followed suit.”

“Monokuma shut that down pretty quick,” Chihiro said. “After that, everyone was back to generally freaking out except for a few students who are trying to work something out to keep us safe. They told us to go find everyone who had ran, we came to find you and now we’re here.” As she finished her sentence, they arrived at the gym.

Kazuichi could notice the difference in tone immediately. While still a bit anxious, the atmosphere of the room was much calmer than when he had fled. Most students were sitting on the floor, either by themselves or in a small cluster. Some were idly chatting, some were silent. A few were standing and appeared to be writing something on their handbooks. He sat down with the girls and they waited in silence for the rest of the students to be retrieved.

Once everyone had arrived, one of the students who had been standing called out over the others talking. “Attention all students!” It was Miss Sonia! Kazuichi promptly followed her request, giving her his full attention. She was just so pretty…

“We have been contemplating the situation in front of us, and we believe we have an idea for a system to be implemented. If everybody cooperates, we will all be much safer.”

Sonia stopped talking, and another student, Kaede, started. “The idea is to have as many safeguards as possible to prevent a murder from happening. We’ve come up with a four-fold arrangement for students to check up on each other to ensure that everyone is alive and well.”

The next to speak was Kaito. “Layer one is the gold ol’ buddy system! I have every student’s name on little slips of paper and we’ll randomly draw them to pair you all off. You can then decide among yourselves who’s whose sidekick,” He said with a grin.

Kiyotaka explained the next part. “The next layer of security we’ll be implementing is to assign groups based on where everyone woke up. Some people woke up with several others in the same room. If that is the case for you, you are then in a group with everyone you woke up with. If you were alone or only had one other person, find another lone person or pair to join forces with.” Kazuichi turned to look at Miu, Chiaki, and Chihiro. The four of them all nodded to each other in understanding.

Next up was Sakura. “In addition to the groupings previously mentioned, I and the others standing next to me will act as leaders for our classes, separated by gender. I will supervise all the girls from class 78, and Kiyotaka will supervise the boys. The same applies to Byakuya and Sonia for class 77 and Kaede and Kaito for class 79.”

 _Guess that leaves me out of Miss Sonia’s group… unless I get paired up with her!_ Kazuichi thought to himself. _Let’s hope my luck is good today._

Finally, Byakuya— one of them, anyway— spoke. “Your leaders will also be working together to supervise the entire classes overall. This is the layer of security we will be arranging first. Class 77, come to me and Sonia.”

“Class 78, come to me and Sakura!” Kiyotaka boomed.

“Class 79, you’re with me and Kaito!” Kaede said cheerfully. The leaders then split off into their respective groups.

“I guess we’ll meet up with you two later, then!” Chiaki said to Chihiro and Miu.

“Yeah, see you later!” Chihiro said with a smile.

“Cool! See ya around!” Miu said, skipping off to her class. Kazuichi and Chiaki made their way together to where Byakuya and Sonia were gathering their students. Oh, Sonia was just so beautiful…

The class gathered together, all sitting in a circle, and Byakuya began speaking. “Thank you to everyone for cooperating with your fellow classmates. As long as we work together, I’ll do my best to ensure no murders happen on my watch.”

“Quick question,” Akane interrupted.

“What is it?” Byakuya asked.

“So, like, there’s another Byakuya here right? How do we tell you two apart?” Akane asked.

“We can just call this one ‘Ham Hands,’” Hiyoko said snarkily.

“Please, I must ask you to refrain from such nicknames,” Sonia reprimanded.

Kazuichi joined in. “What Miss Sonia said. The whole point of this is to work together, right?”

“Well put, Kazuichi,” Sonia said with a smile.

 _SHE SMILED AT ME!!_ Kazuichi thought. He was feeling a lot better about this whole situation already!

“Yes, we must all work together,” Byakuya said. “As for the concern Akane raised, I will go by another name if necessary to keep things a bit more organized. But not Ham Hands.”

“How about… Twogami?” Hajime suggested. “Similar to Togami, but acknowledging that there’s two of you. For whatever reason.”

Twogami chuckled a bit. “I’m not one for puns normally, but that will do. You all may address me as Twogami now.”

“Excellent!” Sonia said. “Now for the next matter of business. Did any of you wake up in the same room as anyone else? If so, let us know so we can arrange those groups.”

“Kazuichi and I were in the same room, along with Chihiro Fujisaki and Miu Iruma,” Chiaki said. “Four is enough for a group, right?”

“Yes, I believe that will work,” Twogami said, making a note of something oh his handbook. “By the way, there’s a section of your handbook where you can take notes if you haven’t noticed it yet. I would recommend writing down details about your groups.”

Kazuichi opened up his handbook, noticing that there was in fact a page for taking notes. He opened it and typed out a few things. _Wake-up group: Chiaki Nanami, Miu Iruma, Chihiro Fujisaki. Buddy: TBD._

“Ibuki was in a classroom with Kaede and Sayaka!” Ibuki piped up. “We could probably take in a few lonely people if we needed to!”

“I was with Nekomaru, Aoi Asahina, and… oh, come on, who were the other two?” Akane said.

“Leon Kuwata and Ryoma Hoshi,” Nekomaru added. Twogami and Sonia wrote all that down.

“I was alone in a bathroom,” Hiyoko pouted.

“Don’t worry, Hiyoko,” Sonia reassured. “We will work with the other leaders to form groups for anyone left alone.”

“In the meantime, let’s establish a few other things,” Twogami said. “We’ll need to meet with our various groupmates constantly. The current plan is for class groups to meet every morning at breakfast. On our first morning, the entire class will meet. On the second, we’ll meet in our same-gender groups only. This pattern will continue going forward. Is this acceptable to everyone?” The entire class nodded in agreement.

“Wonderful!” Sonia said. “I will also highly recommend that each wake-up group find a time to meet daily. Each group can arrange a suitable time among themselves. As for your buddies, they are intended to be frequent, informal check-ins that don’t need to be planned ahead. And I believe that’s everything we needed to cover, yes?”

“Correct,” Twogami said. He finished writing on his handbook and looked up around the room. “I will go check on the other classes to see how they’re doing. Once every class is finished, we will dismiss everyone into wake-up groups and assign groups for anyone who was alone.” With that, he stood up and headed toward class 78.

Kazuichi addressed Sonia. “Thank you for taking leadership Miss Sonia. I’m sure everyone appreciates it!” A few others added their thanks as well.

Sonia smiled at the praise. “It’s no trouble at all! We— ah, I— am used to this situation. I am the Ultimate Princess, after all.”

“And it shows,” Kazuichi said with a grin. _Wow, she really is something!_

“Just don’t forget Twogami’s role in this as well,” Sonia said gently. “Ah, it looks like the other classes are done. Those of you who have wake-up groups may go to them, and those who don’t, follow me!”

With her dismissal, everyone stood up and split up. Kazuichi and Chiaki went in search of Miu and Chihiro. The four of them gathered and Kazuichi spoke first. “What did you two hear from your leaders?’

“Meet with class groups daily, as well as wake-up groups, and informal check-ins with your buddies,” Chihiro said. She looked a lot less nervous than she had been earlier in the day, which was a good sign.

“I heard the same thing,” Miu said. “And I assume you two did too?” Kazuichi and Chiaki nodded.

“Well, if we’re going to be meeting with our classes during breakfast, should the four of us meet every day for lunch?” Chiaki suggested.

“Sounds good to me!” Miu said. Kazuichi and Chihiro both nodded. Everyone noted this update in their handbooks.

“Glad we have that figured out,” Kazuichi said, smiling. “I’m sure we have nothing to worry about!”

Just then, Kaede approached the group with Tsumugi in tow. “Hey everyone! Would you be willing to take in a straggler?”

“No problem!” Chiaki said, and the others nodded in agreement. “Tsumugi Shirogane, right?”

“Yep, that’s me!” Tsumugi waved goodbye to Kaede as she went back presumably to help assign more loners. “Ultimate Cosplayer, by the way. Would you all remind me of your names?” 

“I’m Kazuichi Soda, Ultimate Mechanic.”

“Chihiro Fujisaki, Ultimate Programmer.”

“Miu Iruma, Ultimate Inventor!”

“Chiaki Nanami, Ultimate Gamer. And by the way, we’re planning on meeting during lunch every day.”

“Sounds good to me!” Tsumugi said, writing everything down in her handbook. The original four added her to their notes. As they finished up their writing, Kiyotaka called for everyone’s attention.

“Listen up, students! Once everyone has arranged details with their groups, we will begin assigning pairs!”

Sakura held up a few sheets of paper. “I have everyone’s names here. I’ll be drawing them randomly to assign buddies for everyone.” She began carefully tearing the paper into strips as she spoke.

“Where’d she get the paper?” Kazuichi wondered aloud.

“There was probably some in a classroom somewhere,” Chihiro said.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Kazuichi watched as the remaining students were sorted into groups and began arranging details. _I can’t believe I got so worked up over that teddy bear,_ he thought. _I mean, the situation we’re in still isn’t great, but with how everyone’s pulled together I’m sure we’ll all be fine. Especially with Miss Sonia in charge!_

Soon enough, all the groups were sorted out, ensuring nobody was left behind. Sakura had everyone’s names mixed up in the hat that Himiko was kind enough to lend. She rummaged around a bit and pulled out two slips of paper. “When I call your names, write down the name of your buddy in your handbook. Is everyone ready?”

“Ready!” several students called out. And Sakura began.

“Kaito Momota and Chihiro Fujisaki.”

“He seems pretty cool,” Tsumugi whispered to Chihiro. “I think you’ll get along fine.”

“Sonia Nevermind and Kokichi Oma,” Sakura called out. “Tenko Chabashira and Angie Yonaga. Mondo Owada and Kiyotaka Ishimaru. Makoto Naegi and Byakuya Togami, uh, Twogami, rather. Tsumugi Shirogane and myself. Rantaro Amami and Nekomaru Nidai. Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu and Gonta Gokuhara. Nagito Komaeda and Hajime Hinata. Mikan Tsumiki and K1-B0. Ibuki Mioda and Leon Kuwata. Mahiru Koizumi and Peko Pekoyama. Miu Iruma and Toko Fukawa. Hiyoko Saionji and Maki Harukawa. Chiaki Nanami and Kaede Akamatsu. Junko Enoshima and Celestia Ludenberg. Himiko Yumeno and Kyoko Kirigiri. Mukuro Ikusaba and Kazuichi Soda. Gundham Tanaka and Kirumi Tojo. Aoi Asahina and Korekiyo Shinguji. Shuichi Saihara and Teruteru Hanamura. Akane Owari and Byakuya Togami. Sayaka Maizono and Hifumi Yamada. And last but not least, Ryoma Hoshi and Yasuhiro Hagakure.”

“Mukuro Ikusaba, huh?” Kazuichi muttered to himself, writing down the name in his handbook. _Too bad it wasn't Miss Sonia._ “Who is she again?”

“She’s the Ultimate Soldier, I think,” Chihiro said.

“Soldier?” Kazuichi was both intrigued and a bit worried.

“That should be interesting,” Chiaki remarked. “I’m glad I got Kaede. She seems nice.”

“So does Sakura,” Tsumugi said.

“I don’t like the looks of Toko from what I’ve seen,” Miu said with a grimace.

“It should be fine,” Kazuichi said. “You’re just checking to see if she’s alive a few times a day.”

“I guess,” Miu sighed. “Anyway, Kazuichi, whaddya think? You’ve got your own little harem starting up here!”

“That’s… not the word I would use to describe this group,” Chiaki muttered.

“That sort of thing only happens in anime,” Tsumugi said. “Not in real life.”

“We could change that though, right?” Miu said with a cheeky grin.

“I’d rather not,” Chiaki said firmly, ending the discussion. “Shall we go see what the rest of the school has to offer?”

“Sounds good to me!” Chihiro said with an adorable smile.

“Could you show me the arcade room you started in?” Tsumugi asked.

“Sure thing!” Kazuichi said. “Maybe we can also properly check out the video games while we’re there!”

“I’d love that,” Chiaki said. It was decided. The five of them headed for the gym exit.

Kazuichi took a deep breath and smiled. _Everything’s still weird, but things aren’t too bad. We’ve got a system in place, Miss Sonia’s helping us all, and I’m on my way to making some new friends! I think everything’s gonna be okay._


	3. Settling In

“Wow, a lot of people get up earlier than I thought,” Chiaki commented, sipping a cup of water.

“Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that,” Kazuichi agreed, his feet propped up on the cafeteria table. He’d probably get flak for it from someone later, but nobody had commented on it yet. So far, the people awake were himself, Chiaki, Maki, Akane, Nekomaru, Sakura, Kyoko, Kaito, Kaede, and Kirumi. And it was pretty early in the morning, too. Kazuichi glanced up at a clock hanging on a wall to check the time. 6:13.

This was ridiculously early for him, but he had been rudely awoken by strange dreams and had given up on going back to sleep. So just before six, he was out and about exploring the halls with Chiaki, who had been in a similar situation. He hadn’t had the chance to do that the day before. He had intended to go exploring but wound up spending almost the entire day in the arcade with his wake-up group. It had been fun though. And Chiaki’s title of Ultimate Gamer was well-deserved. She crushed everyone at every game they attempted.

Their early morning search didn’t yield much. Since it wasn’t morning hours yet, the only unlocked rooms were everyone’s dorms, the kitchen, and the cafeteria. They were able to peek through the doors of some of the available rooms, however. From what they had gathered, there were four classrooms, the arcade, the cafeteria, the gymnasium, two locker rooms, various bathrooms, and a sauna. There were also a few rooms and two sets of stairs that were completely blocked off, and one other open room that they couldn’t tell what it was. At least they had gotten a chance to stretch their legs.

Chiaki stood up from the table and finished the rest of her water. “I’m putting this back in the kitchen,” she said, gesturing to her cup, “and then I want to go talk to Kaede. Since she’s my buddy and all.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Kazuichi said. As Chiaki left, he pulled out his handbook to remind himself of who his partner was. Mukuro Ikusaba, the Soldier. “Something tells me she isn’t going to be the friendliest person here,” he muttered to himself. “Oh well.”

He stood up and stretched, shaking the last bit of sleep from his body. Now, it was just a matter of waiting around for morning hours and for everyone else to wake up. He looked around. Surely there was something he could do to pass the time…

“Kazuichi?” He jumped a bit, turning to see who had addressed him. It was Twogami. He must have joined the cafeteria crowd while he had been talking to Chiaki.

“My apologies, I didn’t mean to startle you,” Twogami continued. “I just wanted to ask you a quick favor, that’s all.”

“Sure thing!” Kazuichi replied. Maybe this would keep him occupied until seven. “What is it?”

“As you probably have noticed, there’s only a few tables and chairs out at the moment.” Twogami gestured around the room. There were two rectangular foldable tables currently out, the one he and Chiaki had just been sitting at and the one she now sat at with Kaede. The two were chatting and smiling. They appeared to be getting along well. That was a good sign.

“I would like it if you could help me set up other tables and chairs before breakfast,” Twogami said. “That way, we aren’t worrying about setting up with all the students already here and potentially getting in the way.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Kazuichi said. “Where are the rest of the tables and whatnot?”

“I believe they’re over here somewhere,” Twogami said, pointing to a propped-open door a few feet away from the door to the kitchen. The two of them walked over to the door to find Twogami was right. They immediately got to work, pulling out one of the tables and carrying it out to the cafeteria. Kazuichi didn’t look it, but he was fairly strong from years of lugging various metal contraptions around. He was also able to quickly figure out how to pull out the foldable table legs and set them in place.

Kaede and Chiaki noticed the two and came over to talk to them. “Want any help with that?” Kaede asked.

“Sure,” Twogami replied. “Move the table you two were just at over there,” he said, pointing to a spot in the room. The girls started their task, and the boys went back to get another table. In what felt like no time at all, there were now six tables set up in the cafeteria. They were arranged to create three extra-long tables evenly spaced across the room.

“Since all the leaders agreed to host class meetings during breakfast,” Twogami explained, “we’re setting this up so each class can sit together. On alternate days where we separate by gender, we’ll move the tables apart.”

“This will mean we’ll need to rearrange the tables each evening before bed,” Kaede said. “But I’m sure it won’t be too much of an issue.”

“Yeah, it’s not that hard,” Kazuichi said with a smile. “I could even take charge of overseeing the evening rearrangements if that’s all right with you guys.”

“That would be helpful, thank you!” Kaede said with a smile.

Twogami nodded his approval. “I will make note of that, and alert the other leaders as well. Once Sonia arrives I did want to speak with her about possibly setting up more roles for people.”

“Will you tell her about my offer?” Kazuichi said. His voice stayed fairly neutral, but his head was filled with hopes that Miss Sonia might praise him for his offer.

“I will be sure to do that,” Twogami said. “I’m sure she will appreciate it. And maybe your offer will inspire others to take on roles as well.”

Kazuichi couldn’t help but smile. As everyone made their way back to the supply room to start setting up chairs, Chiaki got Kazuichi’s attention and whispered to him. “Someone has a crush on the princess, huh?”

“Maybe...” he whispered back.

“Just don’t lose your head over it,” Chiaki cautioned, but she was smiling. They fell to silence as they continued their work, setting up sixteen chairs at each pair of tables. A few more students had trickled in, but most were still asleep or just staying in their rooms for the time being.

After everything was in place, Kazuichi sat down at the designated tables for class 77 along with Chiaki and Twogami. “How are things with Kaede so far?” he asked Chiaki.

“We hit it off pretty well!” she replied with a smile. “She knows a few video games’ soundtracks on the piano, so I’ll have to listen to that at some point.”

“Cool!” Kazuichi would have put his feet back up on the table but he got the feeling that Twogami wouldn’t appreciate it. “Speaking of video games, care for a few rematches later today?”

*****

“Thanks for the food Teru!” Akane said happily, polishing off the last of her breakfast. Teruteru had made grilled fish and rice for everyone and served it with fresh fruit.

“Yeah, thanks!” Kazuichi added. Several others added their thanks as well.

“You all are welcome,” Teruteru said.

“On that topic,” Twogami said, “would you mind being in charge of meals, Teruteru? I doubt cooking for 48 people by yourself is entirely feasible, even with your talent, but perhaps you could oversee anyone else helping you.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Teruteru said, smoothing out his hair. “Perhaps I could have a few of these lovely ladies assist me some time,” he suggested with a less-than-wholesome smile.

“We’ll see,” Twogami said firmly, and that was the end of that bit of conversation.

“Similarly, we may institute other leadership roles as time goes on to keep things running smoothly,” Sonia said. “For example, Kazuichi here has volunteered to oversee the setting up of the cafeteria each evening.”

Kazuichi smiled. Chiaki gave him a knowing look.

Sonia continued. “For the time being, let’s-”

“Attention students!” a voice boomed from the other side of the cafeteria. Monokuma’s voice, to be exact. Several groans could be heard throughout the room, but ultimately everyone turned their attention to him.

“What do you want?” Kaito yelled.

“Why, to give you all some presents, that’s all!” the bear replied with a smile. Kazuichi was immediately wary. He doubted a present from this thing would be very pleasant. “Everybody, please open your handbooks and open your maps. You should see a few spiffy new details I’ve added!”

Reluctantly, Kazuichi followed the orders. His attention was immediately drawn to one of the two locker rooms, which was newly labeled “Ultimate Supplies.” _What in the world does that mean?_ he thought.

“You’re free to check out the place whenever you wish!” Monokuma said. “I figured that since so few of you seem willing to start up the killing and would rather spend decades of your life wasting away within the school, I might as well make your stay a bit more _bear_ able! Puhuhuhu!” And with that, he was gone.

The thought echoed in Kazuichi’s mind. This was really what he was signing up for, huh? Years upon years only within this school? With only a few places to go? With only so much to do? Years upon years upon years-

“We can’t let him get to us!” Chiaki’s voice snapped him out of his uncomfortable train of thought. “We have to stay strong. There’s no way we’re letting him get to us!”

Across the table, Nagito smiled. “Ah, the beauty of hope in action. Quite a powerful thing.”

Several people gave him a strange look. Kazuichi included.

“And what exactly do you mean by that, Nagito?” Chiaki asked. She looked rather taken aback.

Nagito looked directly into her eyes. The expression on his face made Kazuichi extremely uncomfortable.

“Hope like yours is no good within this prison,” he said slowly. “If only we were to play his little game, perhaps you would survive. Perhaps we could serve as stepping stones for your hope. I for one would be willing to die if-”

“No.” Hajime stood up, placing both of his hands firmly on the table and staring down Nagito.

Nagito merely chuckled. “Ah, another hopeful soul? Perhaps you as well will-”

“Enough, Nagito,” Hajime said firmly. “I suggest we all go see what this new room is about and go about our day as normal.”

“Should we clean up breakfast first?” Chiaki asked.

“I can stay behind and clean up!” Mahiru offered. “I’ll just look at the room later, I suppose.”

“I’ll help clean up too!” Mikan said.

“That’s very kind of you two to offer,” Sonia said. “Perhaps a few from other classes will do the same as well.”

“Maybe we could make this into a turn-based thing,” Hajime suggested. “Like, assign two people per day for meal cleanup or something.”

“I’ll take that into consideration,” Twogami said, standing up. “A great suggestion. Now, minus Mikan and Mahiru, shall we head over to see what this new place has to offer?” He was met by nods from the rest of the students, and so, they left the cafeteria. By that point, class 79 had already left, minus Kirumi and Kaede. Kazuichi and Chiaki stayed together at the back of the group as they walked.

“I’m a bit worried about Nagito,” Chiaki whispered to Kazuichi.

“Yeah, he’s definitely got more than a few screws loose,” Kazuichi muttered. “I’m keeping my distance from him, that’s for sure.”

Chiaki was quiet for quite a bit before responding.

“I feel like that’s what Monokuma wants most. Even more than killing. I think he wants our distrust of each other above all.”

The two of them pondered this sentiment in silence until they reached the locker room. Upon arrival, Kazuichi noticed that there were 48 large lockers, each one labeled with the name of one of the students. Several were already opened by the class 79 members who were there already.

“Hey everyone!” Kaito greeted them. “You have a little image thing on your e-handbooks that you use to open these!” he explained. Kazuichi pulled out his handbook, and after a bit of fiddling, found a page with a strange pattern that he assumed was it. He held this up to the door of his locker, noticing it had a scanner and a little light. A few moments later, the light flashed on and he was able to open the door. Inside was a massive toolbox. He pulled it out and began looking through it. It had all the tools his heart could have desired. Wrenches, screws, hammers, nails, you name it. Everything was in pristine condition.

He smiled and let out a sigh of relief, feeling the stress melt away at the encounter with something familiar. He looked around to see what the others had. Chiaki was trying not to squeal with excitement as she looked through the assortment of handheld gaming devices and games that were in her locker. Hiyoko was trying on a pair of dancing shoes. Gonta was eagerly flipping through what appeared to be some sort of insect encyclopedia. Ibuki was happily humming along as she read her sheet music. Angie had unwrapped a set of paintbrushes and was feeling the bristles.

This moment of happiness didn’t last very long. Kazuichi’s mind quickly flooded with questions. _Why are we getting these? There’s no chance that little bear bastard gave us these out of the goodness of his own heart. If he even has one. There has to be some sort of trick. But what is it? Why are we getting these? What’s going on?_

“Hey hey,” a soft voice dismissed the thoughts. He noticed Chiaki had appeared next to him at some point. “You okay? You look worried.”

“I’m not worried!” Kazuichi lied. “Just thinking about what to do with this stuff, that’s all.”

“I see,” Chiaki said, not fully convinced. “You can talk to me about anything that’s bothering you, though. I’m here for you, okay?”

“Okay.” Kazuichi had no intention of admitting his fear, however. He had his appearances to keep, after all. He put away the few things he had taken from his toolbox. By this time, the clean-up duos from 77 and 79 had arrived along with class 78. The room was fairly small, so it was a bit crowded and hard to navigate, but Kazuichi squeezed his way out. He began walking to his dorm room when he heard someone calling his name behind him.

“Kazuichi?” It was Hajime. “Can I ask you something?”

“Uh, sure,” Kazuchi said, slowing down a bit so Hajime could catch up.

“Any recommendations for games in the arcade?” Hajime asked.

“Uh…” Kazuichi thought for a moment. “Honestly, everything there is really good. I don’t think I have any particular favorite. Why do you ask?”

Hajime’s answer caught him off guard. “I’m trying to think of things to do with Nagito.”

“Wh-why?” Kazuichi spluttered. “Didn’t you hear what he said? He’s crazy!”

“Isn’t that all the more reason to ensure someone is with him?” Hajime pointed out. “To keep an eye on him? I am his assigned buddy, after all, so I should watch him.”

“Fair enough,” Kazuichi shrugged. “Just be careful, okay? I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“Don’t worry,” Hajime said. “I don’t think he’s going to hurt anyone. I get the feeling that if it really came down to it, he’d much rather be killed than kill.” He went quiet for a little while. “Although, he was nothing like that during our first meeting in the gym. He was just a chill guy. Maybe he’s just reacting poorly to the stress.”

“I… could see that…” Kazuichi admitted. “That bear could very easily get to all of us if we aren’t careful.”

“Not like we’ll let him have it that easy,” Hajime said with a confident smile. Kazuichi felt a lot better just from that. “Well, see you around, I guess. I’m gonna go find Nagito.”

“See you around. Stay safe!” Kazuichi called after Hajime as he doubled back. Kazuichi kept walking toward his dorm. Until he passed a classroom and got an idea. He backtracked a bit and entered the classroom, making a beeline to the closest desk. He set down the toolbox and turned the desk over. Yes! The desk was built in such a way that he could totally disassemble and reassemble it.

_This should pass some time!_ he thought happily. He opened his toolbox and pulled out a screwdriver, getting to work on the screws. _Maybe I can just disassemble a desk whenever I get too worked up over everything. As a way to calm down or something. No way I’m gonna sit back and let that bear get to me..._


	4. Building Bonds, Building Tensions

“How was everyone’s day so far?” Chihiro asked. It was one in the afternoon, and Kazuichi’s wake-up group was holding their first meeting.

“My day’s gone pretty well!” Kazuichi said. “I got a massive toolbox from that weird locker thing. I spent most of my time taking apart desks in one of the classrooms and putting them back together.”

“I got a bunch of games,” Chiaki said. “Obviously, I’ve been playing them all day.”

“I got something similar to Kazuichi,” Miu said. “Might have even been the same thing as far as I know. After talking to that Toko girl for a few moments to get it out of the way,” here she grimaced, “I spent the morning in my dorm brainstorming ideas to get us out of this place.”

“Is that even possible?” Tsumugi asked. “This place seems pretty strongly shut off.”

“Psh, nothing this girl genius can’t work around,” Miu said with a confident smile. “I’ll have us all out of here soon enough. Don’t worry.”

“Either that, or somebody outside has to be trying to get us,” Chiaki said thoughtfully. “I don’t think all the parents and teachers agreed to trap their students inside the school with explosive robot teddy bears.”

“FOR THE LAST TIME, I AM NOT A TEDDY BEAR!” Everyone jumped at the sound of Monokuma’s yelling. “Sheesh, you kids are just a bunch of jerks, aren’t ya!”

“Chill out, Mr. Build-A-Bear reject,” Miu deadpanned. “Your toddler won’t want to play with you anymore if you act like that.”

“Ha, as if the likes of a toddler could control me!” Monokuma laughed.

“Wait a minute…” Kazuichi said, a realization clicking into place. “Somebody’s controlling you, right?”

“Um…” Monokuma seemed to have been caught off guard.

“Is it one of the students here? Or somebody else?” Kazuichi asked.

“What makes you think I would tell you?” Monokuma retorted. “I’m not about to let you all off the hook that easily! Now finish up your lunch and stop wasting my time!” With that, he stormed off. An awkward silence temporarily took his place before Chiaki spoke up.

“I think you’re on to something, Kazuichi,” she said thoughtfully. “Someone has to be controlling Monokuma. Maybe if we find out who it is, that can give us some clues for why we’re here, and how to get out. I doubt it’s one of the students, though.”

“Who else would it be?” Miu asked. “We haven’t seen signs of anyone else here besides the students and Monokuma.”

“But they could be hiding,” Tsumugi pointed out. “It would probably be really easy to hide on one of the higher floors. That and I highly doubt a high school student is behind all of this. We’re kids, after all.”

“Kids who were selected for this school because we have skills greater than average,” Chihiro commented. “If anything, this group is the most suspicious out of everyone. We have the people most likely to build a robot bear thing.”

“That’s a fair point,” Kazuichi muttered. “Although now that you’ve brought that up so blatantly, I think we can safely say you can’t be the mastermind.”

“I don’t think any of us are,” Chiaki said. “Again, I doubt it’s any student here, but if it is, I trust you all.”

“Agreed!” Tsumugi said. “Now, what were we talking about before Monokuma showed up again?”

“What we got from those weird lockers,” Miu said. “You and Chihiro are the only ones who haven’t gone.”

“Oh right, that was it,” Tsumugi said. “I just got some cloth and sewing materials. What about you, Chihiro?”

“I got a laptop,” Chihiro said, “but it’s not very good quality. I don’t think it will be very useful.”

“It’s at least something though, right?” Kazuichi said.

“Just ‘something’ isn’t gonna get us out of here,” Miu said. “Whoever’s behind all this isn’t about to hand us the tools to our freedom. We gotta fucking work for it.”

“So…” Chiaki said. “I think I know what you’ll be doing after our meeting today.”

“Yep,” Miu said with a sigh. “I’m actually gonna get back to that now. I know we’re supposed to be sticking together and all, but I can’t waste any time.”

“I think as long as you do take a break every now and then so we can check on each other, we should be fine,” Tsumugi said.

“Yeah, I’m with Tsumugi,” Kazuichi said. “I think we’re okay.”

“Gotcha.” With that, Miu stood up and left. “See you all around.”

“See you around!” Chihiro said with a smile.

Kazuichi also stood up and left, addressing the others. “I’m also going to head out. I want to get a chance to talk to Mukuro. I get the feeling we won’t really be friends, but I can at least look out for her.”

*****

It was the morning of their fourth full day, and Kazuichi still hadn’t managed to find Mukuro.

“I just don’t know where she could be!” he said frustratedly to Chiaki. It turned out that neither of them could sleep well since this whole thing started, so the two of them had formed a habit of meeting early in the cafeteria. “We don’t exactly have a very large living space at the moment! How can she be hiding from me?”

“I wouldn’t exactly be surprised if she was trained to be good at hiding,” Chiaki mused. “I don’t really know much about being a soldier, but I’ve played a few video games starring them. If they’ve taught me anything, you need to be able to hide if you want to survive a battle, not just attack.”

“That’s fair and all,” Kazuichi said, “but why would she be hiding from us? We’re supposed to be helping each other!”

“Maybe she just doesn’t trust us,” Chiaki said. “Not everybody here is willing to trust the rest.”

Just then, Akane showed up next to them. “Hey Kaz, can you come help us with something?”

“Oh, sure!” Kazuichi stood up and followed her. “Talk to you later, Chiaki!” Chiaki waved goodbye as Akane led Kazuichi to the other side of the cafeteria. All the group leaders were sitting in a cluster next to another table that had been brought out. Angie was there too, packing up her art supplies. Kazuichi assumed she had received them from the lockers. As he got closer, he noticed the table had been painted on to form some sort of chart.

“A public reminder of what all our groupings are,” Twogami explained.

“And we left extra space in case we add anything else to it,” Kaede said. “Can you help us put it up?”

“Sure!” Kazuichi picked up one long side of the table. Akane took the side opposite to Kazuichi, and Sakura picked up one of the shorter ends. Kaede and Kiyotaka tied red rope tightly around the two table legs closest to Sakura.

“Where did you get the rope?” Sonia asked. “I think I missed that detail earlier.”

“Korekiyo had it for some reason,” Kaito said with a shrug. “None of us really know why. Some of the locker contents were weirder than others.”

With the rope tied on, the three holding the table lifted it up so it was against the wall. Kaede and Kaito brought over two chairs and stood on them to tie the ropes to two large nails that had been hammered into the wall.

“I don’t think that is exactly safe,” Kiyotaka said.

“Well, it’s the best we have,” Kaede said. After all the knots were tied and double-checked, she and Kaito climbed down, and the table was released.

“Wait, when were the nails added?” Kazuichi asked.

“Miu hammered those in last night,” Akane said. “We were going to get you to help but we couldn’t find you.”

“I was looking for Mukuro,” Kazuichi explained, gesturing to the table sign. “For some reason, I haven’t been able to find her anywhere since we set up groups.”

“Her attendance has been poor,” Sakura remarked. “And her sister as well.”

“I can help you hunt her down later if you want!” Akane said with a grin.

“Really? Thanks for the help!” Kazuichi replied.

“No problem!” Akane said, crossing the cafeteria to the table where class 77’s girls would be for their morning meeting. “After breakfast!”

*****

“Seriously, where the hell is she?” Akane groaned, leaning against the wall to rest.

“I’ve been asking myself the same question every day since we were assigned,” Kazuichi said, out of breath. “I can get how someone could hide for a little while, but geez! It’s been quite a few days now!”

“Now that I think about it, class 77 doesn’t have great attendance, do they?” Akane muttered. “I’ve only seen my buddy, Byakuya, once. And all he said to me was to go away.”

“Oh yeah…” Kazuichi said, bits of conversation coming back to him. “Chihiro told me that Byakuya, Junko, and Mukuro were consistently missing from morning meetings. And Celeste has only been there like half the time.”

“Yikes,” Akane said. “What about class 79? You have someone from there in your wake-up group too, right?”

“Yeah, Miu. And Tsumugi was also added a bit later,” Kazuichi said. “They’ve had some trouble with Maki and Korekiyo, but it hasn’t been as bad for them. And… our class has had perfect attendance, right?”

“Yep!” Akane said, beaming. “Only slip-up we’ve ever had was when Mikan was in the bathroom crying, but even then she was only ten minutes late.”

“Guess we have a pretty good class, huh?” Kazuichi said. “I wonder if having a real-life princess here helped…” He couldn’t help but drift into a bit of a longing tone as he thought.

“Oh dear. Someone’s got heart eyes,” Akane said, jokingly rolling her eyes.

“Is it really that obvious?” Kazuichi said.

“100 percent,” Akane said with a slight laugh. “Let’s just hope she doesn’t die first, I suppose.”

Kazuichi could feel the blood draining from his face as he was reminded of the overall situation he was in. “Y-yeah, let’s hope…”

“Uh… not like anyone’s actually going to die,” Akane said, quickly backtracking. “Totally not! Do you really think one tiny bear can overpower 48 super-talented students? I think not!”

“No way!” Kazuichi exclaimed, his facade of confidence quickly returning. “I mean, some people haven’t been as friendly as others, but nobody’s gonna die, right?”

*****

“Somebody’s definitely going to die,” Kazuichi whispered to himself in a shaky voice.

“Don’t think like that,” Chiaki whispered. Shit. She had heard him. “I’m sure whatever this is, it isn’t going to work.”

“ATTENTION STUDENTS! MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION,” Monokuma roared over the whispering crowd. It was the morning of the fifth day, and the students had woken up to several envelopes on their tables with their names written on them. Kazuichi stared down at his envelope. Beneath his name were two words written in big, bold letters: “MURDER MOTIVE.” Just the sight of those words made him anxious. He assumed everyone else’s read the same thing. He didn’t like where this was going at all.

After the chatter had died down, Monokuma proceeded to give everyone instructions. “Please open your envelopes and read the letter inside.”

“Do we have to?” Mondo yelled from his table.

“Well, since we’re so early in the game, I figured I’d be merciful and not mandate it just yet,” Monokuma said with his best attempt at a sincere smile. “Reading your letters is not required, but it is highly recommended. Your curiosity has to be sated somehow, doesn’t it?” And with that, Monokuma disappeared.

Kazuichi glared daggers at the envelope lying innocently on the table. He flipped it over so he couldn’t see any of the words and set about eating his breakfast. No way he was letting that get to him. The rest of his table seemed to be of the same mindset. He had no idea what any of the other classes were doing about this, but he didn’t bother to check.

A few bites in, and he couldn’t help but look at it again. It looked like it was just begging for him to read it. Not. Happening. He picked it up and put it under his chair. Several others followed suit. “Good thinking,” Chiaki whispered to him.

“Thanks,” he replied, going back to his breakfast.

Across the table, Hiyoko groaned. “Ugh. I know I shouldn’t read these but I just… I have to know what’s in there! This is gonna drive me crazy!”

“I don’t think reading them is a good idea…” Mikan piped up.

“Nobody asked you, pig barf!” Hiyoko said angrily.

“Hiyoko, that was unnecessary,” Sonia said. “I understand we’re all upset by this but there is no need to call others names.” Hiyoko pouted, but remained silent.

“Perhaps we need more powerful dark forces to block out Monokuma’s will,” Gundham said in a sinister tone, looking around the table.

“Um… what?” Kazuichi asked, very confused.

“Indeed, I believe only the strongest dark forces at my command can truly defeat the chaos Monokuma has spread among us…” Gundham continued. He suddenly stood up with a flourish, calling out, “Cham-P! San-D! Jum-P! Maga-Z! Emerge and defend us!” He pulled back his coat and... 

Four hamsters appeared.

“Rise, my Four Dark Devas of Destruction!” he said. Contrary to his harsh and dramatic tone of voice, he very gently set down his hamsters on the table. They scurried across, eyeing the other students.

“They’re so cute!” Hiyoko said with a little squeal, holding out her hand for one of the hamsters. Much hamster petting ensued from most of the table, and all thoughts of reading the letter vanished from Kazuichi’s mind.

….okay, maybe he was going to read it. Alone in his room after helping clean up. But he sure as hell wasn’t about to let himself get affected by it! He’d read it just to see what it was and then forget about it!

His determined self-talk was interrupted by Chiaki lightly shaking his shoulder. Before he had the chance to ask what was up, she whispered to him. “Mukuro.” She gestured her head in the direction of class 77’s table. Sure enough, Mukuro and her sister were both there, picking up their envelopes. Kazuichi started to stand up but hesitated. Chiaki whispered to him again. “Just go. I’ll explain it to our class.” He needed no further encouragement. He was able to catch Mukuro just before she reached the cafeteria door.

“Mukuro!” he called, trying to not be too loud. The girl turned to look at him, a stern expression on her face.

“What do you want?” she asked coldly.

“Any chance to talk to you,” Kazuichi said, trying not to sound annoyed. “We were assigned to be each other’s buddies. I’m not going to force you to be my friend or anything, but could we at least check in with each other once in a while?”

Mukuro looked like she was about to say something, but she was cut off by Junko. “That won’t be necessary. We have each other, why would we need to talk to anyone else?” Kazuichi did not like her tone of voice there. “We’ll be on our way now, so-”

“I’d like to stay in touch,” Mukuro said. Her voice was shaky, and she seemed… scared? Kazuichi didn’t get why she’d be scared.

One sharp glare from Junko later, and he understood.

“Do you want to stop by the arcade later?” he asked. “I’m curious how good you’d be at the shooter games.”

“That sounds fun!” she said with a smile, before being dragged away by Junko.

Kazuichi groaned, returning to his table. He’d finally gotten a chance to talk to her, but he wasn’t very excited about it. His annoyance at Junko had ruined that. Chiaki looked similarly annoyed when he got back.

“I couldn’t hear anything, but I don’t think I’m going to like Junko very much,” she murmured.

“Me neither,” Kazuichi said, starting to clear his place. “She did say she wanted to stop by the arcade, though. Hopefully, we’ll have some luck with that. We have to stick together now more than ever.”

“Agreed,” Chiaki said with a solemn nod. “What with these weird motives and all…”

*****

Kazuichi wished he hadn’t read his envelope.

He paced the hallway, trying to think about anything other than the contents of that envelope. He visualized an engine in his mind and started to mentally take it apart. He noted all the pieces, all the pieces sitting in his shop back at home, the shop that could very well be under attack right this minute-

No. Refocus. He started visualizing a video game instead, mentally going through strategies to maybe get an edge on Chiaki one of these days. Maybe if he could just get to a few more bombs before she grabbed them, he’d get the upper hand. The same bombs that could be planted in his workshop at home, decimating all his projects-

He groaned, burying his face in his hands. He _really_ wished he hadn’t read his envelope.

He left the hallway, intending to return to his dorm when he heard what sounded like crying. Curious, he went to investigate. He found it was indeed crying. A little girl with red hair- Himiko, if he remembered correctly- was curled up in a hallway crying into her magician’s cape. “Hey, you okay?” he asked.

She stopped crying immediately, attempting to put on a brave face. “Nyeh? Of course I’m okay. The Ultimate Mage does not need to worry about these things. I’m sure soon enough I’ll have gathered enough mana to stop Monokuma’s doing.”

Kazuichi didn’t quite know how to respond to that. “Uh… if you’re sure,” he said at last.

“What, do you doubt my ability?” she said crossly. “Nyeh, what a pain… not as much of a pain as Kyoko… but still a pain…”

“What’s Kyoko got to do with this?” he asked. “Oh, she’s your assigned buddy, isn’t she?”

“Nyeh…” Himiko said. “She’s supposed to talk to me, right? Well, she hasn’t done that.”

“I haven’t had much luck with my buddy either,” Kazuichi admitted. “I only got a chance to actually talk to her just today, and she was yanked away before it could go anywhere.” He sat down next to her. “Guess this didn’t work out quite as planned, huh?”

“Nyeh, not really…” she muttered.

“I mean… the important thing is that we all stick together, right?” he thought aloud. “Yeah, the assigned system has been helping, but who says we need to stick to that alone?”

“Nyeh?” Himiko seemed interested in this idea. “You mean…”

“Maybe I could take you in, sorta,” he said with a shrug. “Things with Mukuro still don’t look great, so maybe I could be your buddy in the meantime! And if I do get more of a chance to talk with Mukuro, I can include you! The more the merrier, right?”

“That sounds okay, I suppose…” Himiko said. At first, Kazuichi was worried that she disliked the idea, but she then smiled a bit and continued. “You don’t seem very magical, but you’re better than Kyoko at least.”

Kazuichi smiled. “It’s settled, then! While I’m here, how are things with your wake-up group? I think Tsumugi said you were in Sakura’s group?”

“Yeah,” said Himiko. “Sakura, Tenko, and Toko. Oh, and that girl who’s your buddy, and her sister, but they don’t show up to meetings.”

“Oh…” Kazuichi said. “Hey, I think Miu’s buddy is Toko, which means our groups actually share quite a few connections. Maybe we can start working together as one larger group? Or have a system like the class groups for meetings?” He paused for a moment. “I dunno. Just trying to think of things we can do to help with… y’know. Can you ask Sakura about this for me?”

“I guess it wouldn’t be too much of a pain…” Himiko said, standing up. Kazuichi stood up as well.

“Great! I’ll see you around, Himiko!” he said.

“Nyeh… see you later,” Himiko said, walking away. Kazuichi at last returned to his dorm room like he had intended at the beginning. The menacing letter greeted him, lying on his bed. He picked it up and immediately crumpled it, not wanting to read the threat of losing his life’s work again. It had been cruelly written, describing in detail Monokuma’s apparent plans to destroy his workshop if he didn’t graduate. He had even gone so far as to throw in a scathing line that now echoed in his head: _“These attacks were supposed to be targeted on the most important people in one’s life, but you didn’t have anyone, so I had to make do with what I had. I mean, at least you had_ something _, which is more than I can say for some people, but you could have done better…”,_

Kazuichi threw the balled-up letter across the room as hard as he could, trying to get that one line out of his head. He lay down on his bed and pulled his beanie over his face, trying to think about anything else. His mind went to… Chiaki. Chihiro, Miu, and Tsumugi. Himiko and Mukuro. Miss Sonia and Twogami and Gundham and Akane and everyone else from his class.

“You’re wrong, Monokuma,” he thought aloud. “I do have important people in my life. They’re just inside this school, not outside. I’m not going to fall for your plan.”

*****

Despite his renewed resolve the night before, Kazuichi had still slept terribly. His dreams were plagued by visions of his creations burning. He had long given up on trying to return to sleep and defeatedly crawled out of bed and left his dorm. One of these days, he would really need to figure out how to get his sleep schedule back together.

He met Chiaki in the hallways. “Same old?” he whispered, so as to not wake any others.

“Same old,” she replied. “I’m exhausted. I don’t know how much more I can take of this poor sleep.” She yawned deeply.

“You and me both,” he admitted. “But we have to keep going, right?”

“Yeah…” Chiaki said. Kazuichi’s heart sank. She had been the most sensible and optimistic of their group, and now even she was breaking…

This depressing train of thought was interrupted by Akane’s voice. “Hey Kaz! Hey Chika! ...wow, you two really don’t look good.” They were both too tired to take any offense, merely nodding in response.

“Sh-should we head to the ca-afeteria?” Kazuichi said, fighting back yawns. Chiaki gave an affirmative mumble, and the three set off.

“I could probably help you two with some breathing exercises to sleep better if you wanted,” Akane offered. “That, and maybe I should get you two working out. I always sleep better when I’ve tired myself out throughout the day.”

“Maybe I’ll take you up on that,” Kazuichi said. He instantly worried about how rigorous this working out was going to be, but the exhaustion quickly consumed the emotion.

But not even exhaustion could numb what he felt upon arriving at the cafeteria.

The moment Akane opened the door, he noticed that the table that had been converted into an information sign had fallen on the ground. Sticking out from under the table were two brown pigtails that he recognized as Maki Harukawa’s. They were covered in dried blood.

Chiaki gasped aloud. Akane stopped in her tracks. Kazuichi’s heart rate shot up immediately, every last hint of tiredness vanishing from his body in an instant, quickly replaced with pure, painful fear. The intercom crackled to life behind them, a TV screen in the corner lit up, and Monokuma’s voice boomed out.

**“A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the class trial will begin!”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooh, things are starting to get interesting...


	5. The First Trial

Nobody knew what to do after the announcement.

“Should we look at what happened or…” Akane started to ask.

Kazuichi shook his head. “I think we should wait until we get more people here. I don’t want to mess up any evidence. We have a detective here, right?”

Chiaki nodded. “Shuichi Saihara. And there’s been rumors floating around that Kyoko Kirigiri is also a detective, although she refuses to talk about the subject of her talent.”

“Wait, where did you hear about Kyoko?” Kazuichi asked. “I never heard anything like that.”

“I’m buddies with Kaede,” Chiaki replied. “As one of the leaders, she hears about pretty much everything that’s going on, and sometimes we talk about how the other groups are doing.” Her face suddenly paled. “Oh… she’s not going to be very happy about losing one of her group members, is she…”

Kazuichi was silent. He wasn’t particularly happy about losing Maki either. He had barely known her, but still…

This meant Monokuma was winning. The killing game had truly begun.

The cafeteria door burst open behind them. All the group leaders came rushing in, as well as Shuichi, Kyoko, Hiyoko, and Mahiru. Shuichi and Kyoko immediately went and stood on either side of the table.

“Sakura, please lift the table off of the body,” Kyoko ordered. Sakura nodded and complied. Once the table was removed, everyone immediately noticed the knife driven into Maki’s chest. Her right arm was folded awkwardly above her head, her right hand covered in blood, and her left arm was splayed out to her side at an odd angle. But by far the most disturbing part of the scene of the crime was the look of pure terror on Maki’s face. Kazuichi could feel his insides go cold looking at her final expression. He noticed Chiaki hide her face under her hoodie out of the corner of his eye.

“Why did she hafta die first?” Hiyoko cried shrilly, startling nearly everyone else. “She was supposed to be my buddy! Now what do I do?”

“We’ll figure something out,” Sonia said gently, attempting to comfort the other girl.

“At the risk of sounding inconsiderate,” Twogami said, “perhaps we simply reassign her to whoever was originally assigned to the murderer.”

“Which might work,” Kazuichi said, “but while the buddy system has its benefits, I’m worried it might also be causing some problems.”

“Do you know what exactly is going wrong?” Sonia asked. “We would appreciate any feedback to make the system better, in light of…” she trailed off, glancing at Maki’s body.

“I think the problem is actually that people are trying too hard to stick to the system,” Kazuichi explained. “I was talking with Himiko last night, and apparently the buddy system hasn’t worked out well for her.”

“It hasn’t been working well for you either, right?” Akane asked.

“Yeah, but at least I got a chance to speak with my buddy once,” Kazuichi said. “Himiko hasn’t even gotten that yet.”

“I didn’t either!” Hiyoko whined. “And now I never will!”

Kazuichi ignored her, looking directly at Kyoko. “Mind explaining why you haven’t bothered to talk to Himiko? We’re supposed to be working together, aren’t we?”

Kyoko’s face remained emotionless. “I had more important matters to tend to.”

“More important than keeping each other alive?” Kazuichi retorted, growing angry. “What if it had been her body under the table?” He regretted these words the moment they left his mouth, but Kyoko seemed unaffected.

“I would solve the case and avenge her death, which is what I am trying to do for the person who was killed, if you’ll excuse me.” She turned away from him and went back to investigating the body.

“You do raise a good point, Kazuichi,” Sakura said gently. “I believe the system should remain in place, but we should encourage everyone to interact with others more than just what is given.”

“Maybe I could plan something to raise everyone’s morale?” Kaede piped up.

“You look like you could use a little morale boost yourself,” Kaito said. It was true. Kaede looked upset, and understandably so.

“Morale may help,” Kiyotaka said, “but we cannot rely on that alone. I would like to propose the idea of a night watch to the other leaders.”

“Perhaps,” Sonia mused, “but we can work out the details of that later. We have very pressing matters to attend to at the moment.”

The cafeteria door opened once more, and Hajime entered the room. “I heard the announcement. Who… oh.” He looked at the body and went silent.

“Hajime?” Kyoko spoke up. “Would you gather all the other students in the gymnasium? I’d rather not have too many people crowding this room, but we’ll need to all be close by for whenever Monokuma announces that it is time for the trial.”

“Sure thing,” Hajime said. “Does anyone here want to come with me?”

“I’ll go with you,” Chiaki said. “I can’t bear to be in this room any longer.”

“I’ll come with you too, I guess,” Hiyoko said, pouting.

“Me too,” Akane said.

“Give me a few more minutes here, and then I’ll come along,” Kazuichi said.

“Same for me,” Mahiru said, fiddling with her camera. Hajime took everyone who wanted to leave, closing the door behind him. An awkward silence hung heavily in the air for a few moments before Mahiru spoke again. “If it’s all right with you, could I take a few pictures of the crime scene? They might be able to help later in the trial, just in case we miss anything during the first investigation.”

“Good thinking, Mahiru!” Shuichi said. Kyoko nodded her agreement. They both stepped away for a moment so she could get a few pictures from a few different angles.

“I’ll go join the others in the gym now,” Mahiru said. “Let me know if you want to see any of the photos during the trial, okay?”

“Okay,” Shuichi said, returning to his original spot. Mahiru left the cafeteria. Kazuichi would have followed her, but for whatever reason, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the crime scene. He hated looking at it. He hated looking at the dried blood all over the floor, hated the expression on the corpse’s face, hated that the motive had worked for someone. And yet, he couldn’t look away.

“Kazuichi?” Sonia asked. “Would you mind untying the rope and seeing Korekiyo wants any of it back?”

“Uh…” Kazuichi did _not_ want to go any closer to the dead body than he already was. And he did _not_ want to handle that rope. But it was Miss Sonia, so he sucked it up and agreed. “Sure. I’ll go find him.” He gingerly approached the table and started untying the remaining rope, trying to ignore the blood all over the floor. Only a little blood had gotten on the table, but he could still hardly bear to look at it. He took what rope was remaining and left the room. He ran the rope through his hands as he walked, distracting himself with its texture and trying to estimate its length. It was hard to guess though, since the ends were really badly frayed and the rope was starting to unravel a bit.

Eventually he reached the gym, and fortunately for him, Korekiyo was already there. He walked over and showed the remaining bits of rope. “Ah, yes,” Korekiyo said. “I have heard the details of the crime. I do not need the leftover rope, if that’s what you were wondering. You may dispose of it.”

“Okay,” Kazuichi said, walking over to a nearby trash can and stuffing the ruined rope inside. He immediately changed course and ran over to his wake-up group.

“There you are,” Chiaki said in a tired voice. She had an arm around Chihiro, who was visibly shaking. Miu stared at the ground, and Tsumugi looked like she had been crying a bit. Kazuichi sat down with all of them.

A heavy silence hung around them all. Everyone was thinking the same thing.

They would have to sentence a classmate to death.

*****

The elevator was rather cramped and uncomfortable with 48—no, 47 now— kids packed into it. Very few people actually minded, however. There were far more worrying things to think about.

 _Somebody in this elevator killed Maki._ The thought echoed in Kazuichi’s head, drowning out anything else. _Somebody in this elevator is a killer. Somebody in this elevator is going to die. Somebody in this elevator gave in and took a life. We are going to take their life._

Chiaki firmly placed her hand on Kazuichi’s shoulder, breaking through the echoing thoughts. “I know we all hate this,” she whispered, “but we have to do this.”

He grimly nodded, returning the gesture. They held onto each other providing some semblance of mutual comfort until the elevator came to a stop. It had felt like forever since Monokuma had ordered them all in through the formerly sealed-off doors. Now, those doors opened once more, and they beheld the room in front of them.

Forty-eight podiums stood in a massive circle, with Monokuma sitting on a throne-like chair a few feet away. One of the podiums bore an image of Maki’s face crossed out with a bright red X, covered in a thin black veil.

“Welcome students, to your very first class trial!” Monokuma announced. “Each podium has a student’s name inscribed on it. Please find your podium now!”

Kazuichi wandered around the room a bit before finding his. Tsumugi joined him to his left, and Gundham to his right. Teruteru and Hajime stood on either side of Maki’s portrait. Chiaki shot him an encouraging nod from between Makoto and Sonia. At any other time, Kazuichi would have been jealous that Chiaki got to be next to Miss Sonia, but his mind was elsewhere now. He looked around the room for the rest of his group. Miu was next to Mukuro and Kiyotaka. Chihiro was between Junko and Toko.

A sickening feeling took over him as he noticed the look on Junko’s face. It almost looked like she was… enjoying this?

He shook off the thought and turned to look at Tsumugi. Her face was pale and she was holding onto the podium for dear life. He decided to echo Chiaki’s sentiment to her as well. “I know you probably hate this,” he whispered, “but we have to push through, okay?” Tsumugi looked up, merely nodding in reply.

The last few students got in their places, and Monokuma spoke once more. “Now that everybody is ready, it’s time for the class trial to begin! Find the blackened, and they will be executed! But if you fail to discover them, everybody else will die instead!” He cackled ominously before continuing. “Of course, if the blackened so desires, they may select three students to escape with them, leaving everyone else to die. You have one hour. Begin!” The lights in the room turned bright red, and a monitor in the corner started displaying a countdown.

 _Only an hour?_ Kazuichi felt his heart rate start climbing. Could they really solve this in an hour?

“Let’s start with everything we know and work from there,” Kyoko said calmly. “The victim was Maki Harukawa from class 79. The cause of death was a severe stab wound in her chest that made her bleed out. She was also found with a table lying on top of her, and the ropes that had once held that table up were severed. Monokuma was also gracious enough to provide us with a file on the case.” Here she held up something resembling their e-handbooks, but a bit different. “It restates some information that I was able to figure out on my own, but it does provide one valuable clue, the time of death. It says she died at exactly midnight.”

“What was she doing wandering around at midnight?” Makoto asked. “That’s just bound to lead to a disaster.”

“That’s what we have to figure out,” Kyoko replied.

“Perhaps we should institute a rule against going out and about during night hours,” Celestia suggested.

“While that would be helpful,” Kiyotaka boomed, “we have a case to focus on right now.”

“So wait,” Hajime said, “did the table play a role in her death, or was that added after the fact?”

“That’s another piece of the puzzle we have to figure out,” Shuichi said.

“It wouldn’t make much sense to try and hide the body with it,” Kaito said. “Her hair was still sticking out, and we would have noticed the whole thing anyway!”

“M-maybe they were trying to misdirect us with it!” Toko exclaimed. “M-maybe they wanted us to think the table had a role in her death so it would be h-harder to figure out!”

“Or maybe it did have a role in her death,” Shuichi said. “We can’t rule anything out yet.”

“Actually, perhaps we can,” Kyoko said. She turned to Mahiru, who was standing right next to her. “Mahiru, you have pictures of the crime scene, correct?”

“Yes, I do,” she said, pulling out a few photos and handing them to Kyoko. She took the photos and examined them closely.

“As I thought,” she muttered. “There is a small amount of blood on the table. However, when we found the body, the table was propped up on the handle of the knife. The blood on her body shouldn’t have been able to get on the table, and yet it’s there. What’s more, it dried in a streaked pattern.” She showed the photo to Mahiru and Keebo, then passing it around the trial room. The photo went from one person to the next as the conversation continued.

“What’s that got to do with anything?” Fuyuhiko asked. “How does that help us solve anything?”

“I will continue explaining once everyone has seen the photo for themselves,” Kyoko replied.

“Who cares about the table?” Leon said. “The knife is what killed her. Why aren’t we focusing on that out yet?”

“We’ll get there, Leon,” Shuichi said calmly.

“I think it was Teruteru!” Hiyoko called. “He probably has a knife because he’s a chef!”

“I can assure you it wasn’t me, Miss Saionji,” Teruteru said. “I was fast asleep at midnight last night.”

“And I checked the kitchen,” Kyoko added. “We had some fingerprinting powder from Shuichi’s locker contents that I was able to use. None of the knives had any fingerprints on them. And I doubt he has the knowledge of how to properly clean off fingerprints.”

“But Teruteru probably had knives from his locker!” Hiyoko said.

“Hiyoko is correct,” Teruteru admitted, but before he could continue, she cut him off.

“Ha, I told you all!” Hiyoko said triumphantly. “Do we get to vote now?”

“Not yet!” Shuichi exclaimed. “We have to have more conclusive evidence than just that!”

By this point, the photo had made its way over to Kazuichi. He took it and looked closely, seeing that Kyoko’s statements had been correct. He hadn’t noticed the detail earlier, since his attention was more on the rope and trying to not look at the blood. But it was slightly more tolerable in a photograph than in real life. He handed the photo to Tsumugi and tried to think about what that could mean. Meanwhile, the arguments went on.

“I already told you, I was asleep at midnight,” Teruteru said. “The extra cooking knives I received are securely tucked away in my room.”

“Liar!” Hiyoko snarled.

“What makes you think I would damage my knives for such a thing?” Teruteru said, getting more frantic. “Cooking knives have to be treated with great care!”

“You’d just get more knives from the outside world!” Hiyoko said.

“Hiyoko, that is enough!” Kiyotaka snapped.

“We need to figure out more of the broad picture before we hone in on a suspect,” Kyoko said. The picture had finally made its way back to her. “Now that everyone has had a chance to see the evidence, let me explain.”

 _Was... was she was struggling to get out?_ Kazuichi thought to himself.

“The table fell on her while she was still alive,” Kyoko said. “The blood on the table came from her hand as she tried to push the table off. Unfortunately, she bled out and died before she could escape.”

“Sorry if I sound rude,” Tenko said, “but what exactly does that change about the case? How does knowing she struggled change anything?”

“It means we have a better picture of what happened,” Shuichi said. “With how the knife was positioned, we know she didn’t have much time between the stab wound and her death. The table falling on her couldn’t have been an afterthought on the part of the killer.”

“So… does that mean the death was caused by the table falling on her, then?” Rantaro asked.

“Maybe she was holding the knife,” Hajime suggested. “And it fell on her, causing her to instinctively try to block it. I know from helping with evening duties once that the tables are fairly heavy, too much for one person to lift alone. The weight could have pushed the blade into her chest.”

“But why would she be holding the knife?” Kaito asked. “She was the victim!”

“What if that wasn’t her intent?” Miu asked.

“Of course it wasn’t her intent, stupid,” Kokichi sneered. “Nobody thinks to themselves, ‘Oh, what a lovely late night! I’m going to go fetch myself a bit of death!’”

“That’s not what I meant,” Miu retorted. “Something seems off about this whole thing. I think Maki may have been trying to kill someone, and her death was an act of self-defense.”

“She wouldn’t do that!” Kaede said. “I trusted Maki. She wouldn’t have tried to kill anyone!”

“What makes you say that so certainly?” Miu asked. “We didn’t know her! She hardly even showed up to any of our meetings!”

“But…” Kaede desperately searched for words. “I just don’t think she would have killed anyone. She was the Ultimate Child Caregiver! Her job was to take care of people, not to kill them!”

“Who says they’re mutually exclusive?” Akane said nonchalantly.

Kaede was taken aback. “Wh-what do you mean?”

“Taking care of kids isn’t all fun and games,” Akane said. “I’ve had to raise several of my little siblings in a really bad neighborhood. I’ve done some pretty damn shady stuff to make sure they got the chance to eat dinner once in a while. Never killed anyone, but someone in an even worse place than me might have.”

“You…” Kaede was in disbelief. “You really think Maki might have gone through that?”

“I’m not saying she did, but I’m saying it’s possible,” Akane said.

“She might have had a whole orphanage of children to get back to!” Chihiro said, her eyes tearing up a bit.

“Now that you mention it…” Kaito said. “I think she might have mentioned coming from an orphanage once in passing. If I had just remembered that earlier, maybe I could have stopped this whole thing. Maybe I could have talked to her more-”

“Don’t take all the responsibility for this on yourself, Kaito,” Kaede said dejectedly. “There were several factors at play. _That_ factor being the worst of all!” she screamed, pointing an angry finger at Monokuma.

“Aw, what are my beloved students so mad at me for?” Monokuma said with a smile. “I’ll have you know I care very much about everyone’s experience during their precious school years! Which is why I’ll be kind enough to remind you that time is slipping away! Puhuhuhu!”

Kaede grimaced. “Yes, it is. So let’s solve this case.”

“Can we assume that the table falling was an intentional attack, then?” Hajime asked. “Or do we not have enough evidence?”

“While the evidence is still a bit lacking,” Kyoko said, “the current theory is plausible enough that I believe we should explore it a bit more.”

“So… how did they do it?” Tsumugi asked. “Did they use a knife after all, to cut the ropes?”

“That would allow them to put the knife back in the kitchen unnoticed,” Peko said.

“Didn’t you idiots hear what Kyoko said?” Kokichi asked. “There weren’t any fingerprints on the knives!”

“Several people here have gloves, though,” Aoi pointed out. “Kyoko herself included.”

“I mean… I don’t want to cast any unnecessary suspicion, but Aoi has a point,” Mahiru said. “We don’t know that Kyoko didn’t do it…”

“Kyoko is the one who has been directing this trial the whole time,” Byakuya said. “We are under her control to an extent. That gives her a lot of power.”

“Yes, but unlike some,” the other Byakuya— Twogami, rather— said, “Kyoko is responsible. I doubt she would be assisting in a case so much that would lead to her execution.”

“What if she just knows she’s smart enough to get out?” Yasuhiro said, a nervous look on his face.

“She isn’t the only smart person in the room, dumbass!” Junko said. “If she’s actually got any brains, she’ll know to wait until there’s a lower risk before killing anyone!”

“Junko raises a fair point,” Kyoko said. “It would be foolish of me to assume that I am the smartest person in this room. And even if I am, it would be one mind against forty-six. Those are not good odds.”

“Aoi’s concerns about some people having gloves are valid,” Shuichi said, “but I have something else I’m concerned about. Both ropes would have to have been cut at the same time for this plan to work, which would have been difficult.”

Dead silence filled the room.

 _Shit, now what?_ Kazuichi thought. _All this, just for a dead end? There’s no way anyone could have cut both ropes at the same time! Unless they had some sort of complicated device. ...Miu could have built one. But no! I trust Miu! And besides, the killing was most likely in self-defense, so there’s no way she would have thought of that ahead of time! This… this seems impossible._ From the continued silence, he could tell that others probably thought the same.

“Do not worry, everyone,” Angie suddenly said. “Atua has given me the answer!”

“Oh?” Shuichi asked. “And what does… Atua have to say about the situation?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Angie said. “One person cannot cut two ropes at the same time, but two people can! The killer had an accomplice!”

“That’s… a possibility, actually!” Shuichi admitted. “There very well could have been somebody else watching who decided to help.”

“Good thinking, everyone,” Monokuma said, “but I promise that there’s only one blackened! I make sure of that, otherwise, things would be too complicated. See? Aren’t I so nice?”

“Yeah, super nice,” Hajime said sarcastically. “I almost wanna befriend you now.”

“Are you saying that Atua is wrong?” Angie asked angrily. “Atua is divine and all-seeing. Atua cannot be wrong!”

“We’re not saying that Atua is wrong,” Kaede said defensively. “Maybe… you just misunderstood what Atua was trying to tell you?”

“That is not how it works,” Angie said. “When I bring messages from Atua, He speaks directly through me. There is no mistranslation.”

“Maybe he just wants us to figure it out for ourselves,” Nagito said. “There’s no point in bringing hope out of despair if the symbols of hope can’t even do it themselves. Perhaps you were only used to get everyone talking again.”

Angie thought for a moment, and then nodded. “Atua has told me that this is the case. I apologize for the misunderstanding.”

“It’s okay, Angie,” Kaede said.

“But time running out!” Gonta said. “Gonta worried!”

“Gonta’s right,” Kyoko said solemnly. “Everybody needs to start thinking about this as hard as they can. Every detail matters.”

 _Every detail matters,_ Kazuichi repeated to himself mentally. _I was one of the first people there. Did I see anything else?_ He tried his best to remember. All he had seen was her pigtails, some blood, the fallen table, and the ropes. Wait… while he had been taking the ropes to Korekiyo…

“Wait a minute,” he said aloud. “Maybe the killer didn’t need an accomplice! Or a weapon!”

Kyoko looked slightly surprised. “How do you figure?”

“When I was taking the last bits of rope back to Korekiyo,” Kazuichi explained, “I noticed that the ends where it had been cut were badly frayed. Maybe someone had already been cutting them, intending to use the table as a weapon. Maybe even Maki herself. If the ropes had been frayed badly enough, just pushing on the table might have been enough to make it fall!”

“I don’t think that’s the case,” Twogami said. “I went to bed later last night, and I checked the cafeteria before going to sleep to make sure everything was set up. The ropes were still intact, and Maki would have had no reason to turn the table into a weapon if she had a knife on her.”

“Kazuichi still has a very important point,” Kyoko said, looking at another one of Mahiru’s photographs. “These ropes are frayed far beyond a normal cut. There must have been some difficulty cutting through them.”

“I remember that too, now,” Shuichi said. “I remember thinking to myself that whoever had cut the ropes had done a horrible job. They almost looked like they had been bitten through, although I doubt that was the case.”

Bitten through?

Bitten through…

Kazuichi’s heart sank.

He knew who the killer was.

“I... I think Angie may have been onto something after all…” Kazuichi said, failing to keep his voice from shaking. He looked around the room. Chiaki had presumably realized at the same time, given her expression. Hajime’s expression darkened soon after.

“We already know that there could not have been an accomplice,” Kyoko said. “Monokuma has established that.”

“So he has… Hajime said, “...but I don’t think Monokuma counts animals as an accomplice. Do you?” he asked the bear.

“As a matter of fact, I do not,” Monokuma replied, his voice spilling over with horrid glee.

“This can’t be true,” Sonia said suddenly. “There has to be another explanation.”

Kazuichi couldn’t see the look on Gundham’s face, but he could tell that Gundham was sad. “I’m afraid there is none, my princess,” he said, letting his Dark Devas of Destruction peep their little heads out. "I often like to wander at night to feel more connected to the dark powers of the underworld, but fortune was not kind to me this time..."

“Well well well…” Monokuma said. “It seems like we’re getting closer to voting time! Is everybody ready?”

“I believe we are,” Kyoko said. “The evidence suggests that the killer was Gundham Tanaka. He killed out of self-defense after Maki Harukawa either threatened or attacked him. He commanded his hamsters to gnaw through the ropes, while he led Maki under the table. When the ropes broke, she instinctively tried to block the table’s fall, which led to the knife being pushed into her chest. She struggled to get out but failed. Gundham retrieved his hamsters and left.” She looked directly at Gundham. “Is this correct?”

Gundham solemnly nodded.

“Wait, where would Maki have gotten the knife?” Fuyuhiko asked. “We can’t just leave that unsolved, can we?”

“Maybe it was in her locker,” Akane said. “If my guess about her past was right, she would have needed weapons to defend the children she looked after.”

“That’s the most likely explanation,” Kyoko agreed. “Now then, Monokuma?”

“Oh yes!” Monokuma said with a smile. “It’s voting time! On your podiums, you’ll see a screen pop up with pictures of all your classmates on them. Pick the one you think is the killer!”

Kazuichi looked down at his podium. Sure enough, a screen appeared, and there were all his classmate’s faces. He knew which one he had to press, but he didn’t want to do it…

He mustered every ounce of courage he had in his body and voted for Gundham.

Painful silence filled the air as everyone cast their votes. Once all the votes were in, Monokuma sprung to his feet.

“Congratulations!” the bear said. “You all voted correctly! It was indeed Gundham Tanaka!”

The lights in the room returned to a more normal color. The voting screens disappeared, and the monitor with the countdown turned off. The trial was over.

“You can’t execute him!” Sonia yelled suddenly. “He had no intent to kill! He only wanted to protect himself! You can’t kill him!”

“Murder is murder,” Monokuma said. Sonia nearly charged at him, but was stopped by a stern warning. “I haven’t dismissed you from your podiums yet! Anyone who tries to leave before being dismissed will be punished!” Sonia faltered, staying put.

Gundham brought his hamsters into his hands, talking to them. “I am sorry, my Dark Devas. Your master has encountered a bad stroke of fate. Do not fear, however, for there are other souls here who can look after you. None as great as mine, but they will do.” Kazuichi felt even sadder hearing him talk to the hamsters like that. The hamsters looked so small and so scared.

“It looks like we all have some new class pets!” Monokuma said. “...after they get out of the execution, that is!” He pulled out a red judge’s gavel and used it to hit a red button that appeared before him. The lights began to flash red and a round wall of glass descended from the ceiling, cutting Gundham off from everyone else. The floor beneath him, which was apparently yet another elevator, began to sink down.

“You didn’t let us get the hamsters!” Kazuichi yelled as Gundham disappeared.

“Don’t worry, they have a chance of surviving the execution!” Monokuma said. “In fact, every blackened does! Oh, and by the way, you all are dismissed from your podiums now.”

Kazuichi stepped away from his podium and stretched a bit, before getting startled by an incredibly loud noise. The wall behind him, which was apparently a huge metal door, opened up to reveal the execution room. Another wall of glass separated them from the room. Kazuichi approached it, discovering that the execution floor was sunk lower than the floor he stood on. The floor also appeared to be… a forest, with a large clearing in the center, and surrounded by short but steep rocky cliffs. Everybody crowded by the glass, hating that this was happening but all too curious to resist.

“If you’ll look off to the side, you’ll see there’s an exit door,” Monokuma said. And so there was, atop one of the cliffs. “If he can reach that door, it’ll lead him right back here!” the bear said, gesturing to the corner of the trial room. Part of the wall slid up to reveal yet another door. Kazuichis heart lept. So there was a chance!

He watched the execution room. The ground opened in the midst of the clearing and Gundham appeared, still holding his hamsters. The forest was suddenly filled with wildlife, creatures of all kinds scurrying around. Gundham smiled as he reached out to pet a fawn that came bounding toward him. The scene was happy and serene… for a moment.

Dark clouds began to cover the forest. Lightning crackled between them. The creatures grew restless. One great bolt of lightning struck a tree, setting it ablaze. Gundham got to work immediately. He ran for one of the cliffs, beckoning for the fawn to follow him. He took the fawn in his arms and gently brought it up to safety. He climbed back down, and with the help of his Devas, began collecting all the animals of the forest.

As the fire grew, the air became thick with smoke. Gundham covered his mouth with his scarf, but it was not enough. He started coughing more and more, and was struggling to move. Finally, he picked up the last little rabbit and brought it to the top of the cliff, along with his devas. But he didn’t have enough strength to get himself to safety. He fell to the forest floor, lying helplessly as the fires grew closer and closer to him… eventually overtaking him. The other students watched as he began slowly burning to death.

The forest animals disappeared. They had only been an illusion, somehow. Only the Dark Devas remained, looking terribly alone.

“Go through the door!” Sonia called to them, pointing. “Come here! I’ll look after you! You’ll be okay!”

“Actually… I’ve just remembered I’m allergic. We can’t have them as class pets after all.” Monokuma said. Part of the cliff crumbled away, and the Four Dark Devas of Destruction fell into the fires below to burn with their master. “Oh well.”

*****

Nobody dared move.

The fires had long been extinguished by rain. They could just make out the remains of Gundham and his hamsters, burned nearly beyond recognition. They were free to enter the elevator and go back upstairs, but nobody moved just yet.

Eventually, some students began to trickle away. One by one, they left the trial room.

The killing game was in full swing now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this hurt to write


End file.
